After reading Greg Weston today, I am wondering if the next proposal from granola crunchers is that we all go vegetarian and stop our efforts to aid in the reproduction of cattle.
Among the many reasons to cut the bull on global warming, it turns out a staggering 24 million tonnes of annual greenhouse gas emissions are coming from the exhaust pipes of Canadian cattle and other farting farm animals.
In the overall ecological scheme of things, that means farmyard flatulence is contributing as much to heating the planet as half of all the regular passenger cars on Canadian roads today.
All I have to say is that if Cows are making up half the GHG’s that regular passenger cars on our roads make, then we really are lucky our current government opted out of Kyoto or we all may be sitting in a cart being pulled by some farm animal.
The worst offenders?
-Power Generation – 130 MegaTonnes
-Oil and Gas Industry – 133
-Oil and Gas Exports – 46
-Ordinary Passenger Cars – 50
-SUVs and Family Vans – 44
-Transport Trucks – 45
-Domestic Aircraft – 8
-Mining and Manufacturing – 139
-Chemical Industries – 22
-Mining – 18
-Steel Mills – 15
-Aluminum and Other Smelting – 13
-Cement – 11
-Pulp and Paper – 9
Home Heating – 43
Office and Institutional Heating – 38
Waste Disposal – 29
Agriculture – 55
-Animal Flatulence – 24
-Manure Management – 9
-Other – 23
So there you have it. So let’s put a few facts down. As previous Environment Minister Rona Ambrose stated, it is true that we could take every vehicle off the roads and every airplane out of the air and we would only eliminate 147 MegaTonnes, less than 75% of our target.
It is also true that with scrubber technology on incinerators that we should probably get rid of all landfills. The Netherlands has banned them all together and is now strictly using incineration. This alone could cut close to 30 megatonnes. Why are the environmentalistas not jumping on this idea? It would certainly help remove what may become the biggest pile of trash in the free world should the city approve a proposal to triple or quadruple the size of the Carp Rd. landfill in Ottawa. What a way to add another monument to our nation’s capital.
Another way to cut our emissions is to tell Kyoto to eliminate the penalty we receive for being a net exporter of oil. After all, we may be producing it, but we aren’t burning it. Saudi Arabia exports more than four times the oil we do and they are exempt from Kyoto because they are considered a developing nation. Go figure that one out.
The Saudi GDP is about 20th in the world (+/-2) and they have a population about 3/4’s that of Canada. The per capita number may be lower than us, but when the worlds 20th most prosperous nation is considered developing, think about how many nations our payment into Kyoto would be compensating? Sorry, but no thanks. A lot of oil get’s used in plastics and is not simply burned, so I don’t think we should be responsible with what other nations do with that oil.
And regarding going vegetarian, if we move from beef to broccoli, we wouldn’t eliminate the flatulence, we would just displace it.
Notice: Only variables should be assigned by reference in /var/www/wp-content/plugins/subscribe-to-comments/subscribe-to-comments.php on line 590
Actually, Weston has a fatal error in his report. He claims Canada needs to cut 200 Mt of GhG to meet our Kyoto target.
Absolutely false. We are currently closer to 350 Mt OVER our UN mandated target, so take all the cuts he proposes and almost double them.
Notice: Only variables should be assigned by reference in /var/www/wp-content/plugins/subscribe-to-comments/subscribe-to-comments.php on line 590
If you think about it, animals digest vegetation and cellulose much more efficiently than humans do. We are not designed to be vegetarian, and that is why a vegetarian diet is so unhealthy. Our stomachs produce pepsin, which is good for digesting meat, but useless for breaking down the starches and cellulose in vegetation.
Cows and other animals have fermentation stomachs, and a much larger digestive tract to handle all the vegetation they must consume. They must literally be eating all the time to get enough nutrition and food.
Vegans and vegetarians are also farting all the time – their diet makes them do it. So if there are fewer animals eating vegetation and more humans doing so, the flatulence gases are not reduced – in fact, humans digest vegetation less efficiently than animals do, so it might even be increased.
Find out more:
http://www.vegetariansareevil.com
Notice: Only variables should be assigned by reference in /var/www/wp-content/plugins/subscribe-to-comments/subscribe-to-comments.php on line 590
Dear VEGisEVIL,
I’m shocked and surprised that someone who obviously cares about what people eat and how they eat it would be so far off the ball.
I’m putting the impetus on you:
Prove that being Veg is unhealthy:
(in general too, not just the idiots who go vegan and eat pepsi and lays)
Prove you farting thesis:
Excess gas is built up by humans who are forced to digest ANYTHING that their bodies can’t digest quickly. People fart when they drink milk often because they are lactose intolerant.
You and your site represent a horrible campaign of misinformation. Associating the correlation of evil and vegetarianism as causation is ignorant and frightening.
I hope you are joking, if not please seek help. The evil in the world is only being helped by your hating of people and their choices of food.
Notice: Only variables should be assigned by reference in /var/www/wp-content/plugins/subscribe-to-comments/subscribe-to-comments.php on line 590
It seems rather dubious to claim cattle as a new source of GHG’s since they have in essence replaced the 100 or so million bison that roamed North America before the 1870’s.
Notice: Only variables should be assigned by reference in /var/www/wp-content/plugins/subscribe-to-comments/subscribe-to-comments.php on line 590
Joe,
I’m not sure the problem is that they are a new contributer of GHGs… but that they are a contributer of GHGs. GHGs regardless of whether or not they are new sources help to trap reflected sunlight in the atmosphere leading to “global warming”.
Also, as we need to feed more people, there will be more cattle, unless of course we all go Veg.